Page History: Importing Data

Page Revision: 02/07/2009 11:35 AM

Weather Defender has been specifically developed to incorporate 3rd party maps and geographic data into the main application. At its core, Weather Defender hosts a poweful GIS engine capable of rendering dozens of geographic data formats and gigabytes of data.

There are three primary ways to import data into Weather Defender maps:

Import from Layer BrowserUsing the built in Layer Browser, you have access to a library of hundreds of weather and geographic data sets. This is the easiest way to import new data into your Weather Defender Maps.

Import from DiskIf you have existing data in one of the supported formats, adding them to your Weather Defender map is simple.

Import from the InternetIf you run across a supported dataset while browsing the web, you may download it to your Weather Defender map quickly and painlessly.

NOTE: Importing data from the Layer Browser was covered in the Getting Started tutorial, so we will start Importing Data From Disk.

Step 1
Open Weather Defender and the map you wish to import your data set to.

Step 2
Open File Explorer and browser to the folder containing the data set you intend to import. Position the windows so you can see both Weather Defender and File Explorer at the same time.

Step 3
Click and drag the file over top of your Weather Defender map, then drop it.

If there is more than one file associated with your dataset, drag only the primary file. For example, if you are importing an ESRI Shapefile, drag and drop the .SHP file.

Step 4
The new dataset will display on your map and a new layer button should be visible in the Map Layers window. Click the Save button on the tool bar to save your changes.

Additional Notes

You may add multiple datasets at the same time by dragging multiple files from File Explorer

You may also drag-and-drop an entire folder from File Explorer to add all datasets within that folder

As an alternate to dragging-and-dropping using File Explorer, you may click Map Tab > Layers > From Disk... to locate and import datasets from disk.

2. Importing Data From the Internet

Weather Defender has the ability to download datasets directly from the Internet and import them into an open map. This can be a very effective way to customize both the appearance and usefulness of your Weather Defender maps.